Performance and reporting

MOIC (multiple on invested capital)

Also called Multiple of money, MoM, Gross multiple.

Definition

MOIC, multiple on invested capital, is the total value of an investment, realised proceeds plus the current value of what is still held, divided by the capital invested in it. It is usually quoted gross, at the deal level, before management fees, expenses and carried interest.

Updated October 9, 2026Checked against our editorial standards

Example

A fund puts $4M into a Series A and $2M into a follow-on, for $6M of invested cost. It sells half the stake for $12M and marks the rest at $9M. MOIC is (12 + 9) / 6, or 3.5x. The realised MOIC, counting only the cash, is 12 / 6, or 2.0x. Across the whole portfolio, $85M of cost is now worth $255M, a gross MOIC of 3.0x. The fund's TVPI, measured on the $100M LPs paid in and after carry, is 2.24x. Both numbers describe the same portfolio.

Confused with

TVPI. TVPI is at the fund level and net: the denominator is everything LPs paid in, including fees and expenses, and the numerator is after carry. MOIC is at the deal level and gross, on invested cost only. The gap between a portfolio's gross MOIC and the fund's TVPI is the cost of the fund.

IRR. MOIC ignores time. A 3.5x in three years and a 3.5x in eleven years are the same MOIC.

In practice

MOIC is the number on the deal-by-deal page of a fundraising deck. LPs sum the deal values and costs to check that they foot to the fund-level figure, and ask whether recycled capital is in the cost base. Because there is no single standard for it, the definition in the footnote matters more than the number.

Related terms

TVPI (total value to paid-in capital)TVPI, total value to paid-in capital, is the sum of distributions to limited partners and the current net asset value of the fund, divided by the capital LPs have contributed.
Gross versus net returnsGross versus net returns is the distinction between performance measured on a fund's investments before management fees, partnership expenses and carried interest, and performance measured on the cash limited partners actually paid in and received after those costs.
IRR (internal rate of return)IRR, internal rate of return, is the annualised discount rate at which the present value of all capital contributions to a fund equals the present value of all distributions plus the residual net asset value.
Fair valueFair value is the price that would be received to sell an investment in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date.